two homes, look at the debris that is gathered up between those homes. everything tossed around like matchboxes. unbelievable scene. hearts go out to everybody today. jon:. bill: i'm taken by bob turner. he and so many are going through a tough, tough time. hang in there people. martha: see you back here tomorrow, folks. jenna: fires and blizzard in the aftermath of the killer superstorm named sandy. we're glad you're with us everybody as our coverage continues on "happening now." i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. the damage is stagger two days after sandy slammed the entire east coast. neighborhoods are without power and flooded out. dramatic rooftops rescues in hard-hit areas like staten island, new york. new york city subways remain shut down for a second day because of massive flooding. new york not the only place struggling to recover from a monster storm that is blamed for 55 deaths. ohio feeling the sheer force

of sandy did. this powerful storm knocked down trees, snapping power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands of folks in the dark there. that is drop this the bucket compared to more than eight million who have no power. at the height of the storm. some as far away as michigan. a big chunk of the outages in new york. check out incredible video from huntington, long island. you can see as sandy rip as massive tree out right by the roots. this monster storm also changing the landscape of an rye conic part of new jersey, washing away parts of the jersey shore. look at that. a roller-coaster in the ocean now. before-and-after pictures of seaside heights. governor chris christie toured the area. he described the damage as unthinkable. >> literally the boardwalk at seaside heights is washed into the ocean. i saw a roller-coaster and a log flume sitting in the ocean today. what's happened to the jersey shore is just

incalcuable and it will take a long, long time to rebuild. jon: we have live team fox coverage now. janice dean in the fox weather center for us. let's start with rick leventhal in man necessary sqaun -- manasquan new jersey. this week it took a devastating direct hit from hurricane sandy. the mile long boardwalk, really asphalt behind me, it has been shredded the steel bulkhead you can probably make out in the sand hasn't been exposed for 50 years. now all the sand chewed away left it bare. as you look at homes that line the atlantic ocean, million dollar plus homes have in many cases heavily damaged and destroyed. some are pushed off the foundation. we can smell the gas fumes in the air. the town has been closed.

no one is being allowed in, including residents. only emergency workers and state police here to try to prevent looting. a short time ago we spoke with the town's mayor george dempsey lived here since 1943. he is depressed his town was beautiful and shocked but will be back and town will be back. he told us they did everything they could, including evacuating every resident who would leave before the storm arrived. >> we were very well-prepared but not prepared for the amount of damage we got. >> reporter: you couldn't have foreseen this? >> absolutely, couldn't for see this. '92 was bad. '87 was bad. the march 62 storm was bad but this is the worst ever. it's sad. >> reporter: there was four feet of standing water here on these streets and there is still about the five feet of sand on first avenue. they have heavy equipment here now moving that sand off of the streets but they

still have no idea just how bad the damages are and how costly it will be to rebuild, jon. jon: i imagine they're trying to trace the source of that gas leak too, right? they will have to shut off a gas main? >> reporter: yeah. they're doing that there are utility trucks here on the island trying to shut off the gas and trying to make sure there aren't any explosions or fires here. they also have a lot of boats they have to move. boats that were dislodged from moorings and in people's front lawns and blocking bridges. there is a lost cleanup to be done here. jon: wow, what a mess. rick leventhal in manasquan, new jersey. thanks. jenna: this is story still very much developing. the extreme weather is not over yet for many parts of the country as wet snow and high winds spin off the edge of sandy and create blizzard-like conditions across virginia and west virgina. also pennsylvania. janice dean live in the fox weather center with more for us now. >> if you believe it we

might have a storm impacting the same region into next week that could just cause more problems and people are trying to clean up. we'll keep up to date on the very latest. it looks like we'll have a storm developing. of course it will not have the same impact as this one but a possible coastal event that will move into the impacted areas early next week. we'll keep you posted. we're still not down with what was hurricane sandy. it is now an extra tropical low but it is far-reaching. the canopy, the cloud canopy stretches as far up as the arctic circle. we're still seeing rotation and tropical moisture streaming into portions of new england. just, incredible that we're still talking about this storm system. and the snow that is flying, over two feet in some areas. so, still a lot of wind and rain and snow to talk about throughout the next 24 to 36 hours. snow totals. can you believe snow from a

topical system. you heard of lake-effect snow. this is ocean effect snow. so the moisture streaming off the atlantic is getting into the appalachians and bringing us almost three feet of snow in parts of maryland, west virgina, north carolina, tennessee. and we're still talking about this. people are without power. we're dealing with very, very cold temperatures. this is wide reaching story. really two dozen states affected by this storm system. wind gusts in excess of 20 to 30 miles an hour. still into wednesday, especially across the great lakes. we saw mike tobin there in cleveland, ohio, just getting blown away. we're seeing waves 20 to 30 feet, so far reaching this storm system. future radar, low pressure eventually moving into canada but still seeing lingering effects well into thursday and friday, we'll get a break across the east coast into the weekend. we'll watch a developing storm system that could affect cleanup efforts into early next week. that is all they need across

the coastal areas is just another storm to deal with. and, the election coming up next week. john, jenna. jenna: a lot to keep an eye on, janice. thank you. jon: there is this. brand new troubles for a storm-ravaged storm town in new jersey. new fires erupt in the same area where more than a dozen homes burned down when sandy pounded this affluent town. natural gas lines apparently fueling the flames. fire crews are having a tough time reaching the scene because the roads are nearly impasseable. jenna: we're getting brand new details as well on the massive fire that tore through breezy point, queens. you saw some of the footage already. it just boggles the mind. ravaging the blocks and blocks of homes on the barrier island this. is what is evident are. the six alarm fire, one. worst in new york city's history. burned more than 100 homes to the ground and damaged dozens of others. fire crews working nine plus hours to contain fast-moving

flames. the tiny coastal neighborhood told to evacuate before sandy on fear of flooding. one report, not a single building, not a single building in the area was left unscathed, hit by storm surge they were so worried about or this massive fire so unexpected. jon: unbelievable. president obama spending his last wednesday before the election day in new jersey where he will meet with governor chris christie to tour the terrible damage remaining from this storm. the beaches of the jersey shore ravaged. homes flooded and destroyed. amusement park rides now parked in the atlantic ocean. at least six people were killed across the state. nearly three million people were without electricity at the peak of power outages on monday. governor christie plans to ask the president to assign the u.s. army corps of engineers to start working on rebuilding the state's beaches. jenna: we'll continue to watch that development. part of the story. meantime the president cancels another day of campaigning governor mitt romney is focusing on key battleground state of florida. this as we take a live look what is a rally in tampa.

you see the stage sort of in the distance there. that is where former governor jeb bush will appear at any moment with mitt romney. the pair will travel to coral gables and jacksonville for two morallies later day. janice dean mentioned we are less than a week away from election day. chief political correspondent carl cameron is live in tampa with it all. hey, carl. >> reporter: hi, jenna. romney is eager to get back in the campaign saddle after day and a half lull for the sandy disaster. mr. romney has three events here in florida, a key battleground state where the polls continue to tighten. we've been telling everybody for year-and-a-half this is likely to end up close in a number of key battleground states as well as national polls. the national polls have been within the margin literally for weeks. in florida the latest quinnepiac survey, president is up two points. well within the margin and basically reflection of rcp average which shows romney up a point. it is all so close because it doesn't mean heck of a

lot in terms of differences. go to virginia where a state mr. romney is closing the gap and says president obama is up two points in the quinnepiac poll, but there is the average from "real clear politics" survey says mr. romney is leading half a point. then there is ohio. ohio the romney campaign acknowledges it will be a battle down to the very last minute and they have been trailing in some polls. quinnepiac poll has romney down five points but the "real clear politics" average is 2.4 suggesting it is very, very close. the romney campaign arguing that the ground game will put them over the top and they're ready to win this. mr. romney today will unveil his final sprint which will start in ohio. i will have over 100 senators, congressman, governors, state and local officials around the country on stage with him and ready to fan out over the weekend to hit 11 key battleground states. finally, jenna, romney's last event of the campaign takes place monday night in new hampshire, the place where he has a vacation home, nashua the gait city, the "nashua telegraph" which

endorsed barack obama in 2008, switched its allegiances and endorsed mitt romney as the guy best suited to deal with the economy. jenna. jenna: keep an eye what is happening in florida and rest of breaking news in politics and otherwise. carl, thank you. jon: the weather has affected election and campaigning plans and hundreds of miles from the eye of the storm, sandy's violent outer bands prompted weather warnings. they kicked up massive waves. this is the no the ocean. these are the great lakes. how much damage did the storm do there? we'll speak to the commander of michigan's emergency management office coming up. startling new numbers out of europe. what the unemployment rate says about the recovery there, and the chances europe could be headed toward another recession. [shouting] many of my patients still clean their dentures with toothpaste.

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jon: we have been talking so much about how hard sandy hit the jersey shore. rick has more details from the newsroom.

rick? >> reporter: the jersey shore is dotted with community after community each one with its own personality. the president you mentioned in the last segment visiting the most storied of those communities today, atlantic city. home of the famous atlantic city boardwalk. the home of the old miss america beauty pageant. casinos of course. atlantic city so hard hit. you can take a look at pictures there. we want to move further north to seaside heights. this is another community where so many beachgoers go every single summer to enjoy the attractions there, including the boardwalk and its rides. chris christie, the governor of new jersey said this was one of his favorite hangouts when he was growing up as a kid in new jersey. he promises it will be rebuilt in time for this coming summer. though as i can see there is a lot of work to do. a lot of work to do straight ahead, a little further north in the town of point pleasant, another beach town with a long road to recovery ahead. so much damage there. we saw rick leventhal

reporting there recently. four feet of standing water in the streets there off the coast of point pleasant new jersey. a long road to recovery ahead. but again the governor promises it will all be rebuilt. back to you. jon: lots of work to do. everybody will pitch in. thanks very much. jenna: that storm really affected new jersey and we've been talking about so much is spreading west. and it is really headed towards what you're seeing there on your screen towards wisconsin and towards illinois. right now, 20 u.s. states, and washington, d.c. are affected. six 1/2 million homes and businesses without power. that is better than it was a few hours ago, a few days ago, when eight and a half million had power outages but still, millions and millions without power. in michigan the weather prompted warnings for the great lakes with waves up to 23 feet reported on lake huron. wind gusts also reached over 70 miles per hour there knocking down trees and power lines. you're seeing some footage on ire screen.

we have the commander michigan state division of emergency management and homeland security division joining us on the phone. captain, we're getting a first look what the storm did out in michigan. what is the biggest challenge you're facing so far? >> the biggest challenge we have had primarily involved the wind. we were quite fortunate here in michigan and my thoughts and prayers certainly go out to the victims of the hurricane and those that are working hard in the response and recovery. so, you know, we were very fortunate here and reports are still coming in, but for the most part our recovery is well underway. jenna: which area seems most affected? >> as far as damages from the winds, southeast michigan. we still have just over 40,000 people without power but that is down significantly from practically 130,000. the weather has cooperated over the last day. crews have made significant progress. we hope to have about 90% of

the remaining customers back in power this evening. jenna: that sound good to know that, at least the weather is cooperating a little bit where it can over the last few hours. just in general, what's the response plan like, not only today but as you look out into the weekend? >> yeah. right now we're still assessing the damage reports that come in from the locals. as far as from wave issues from the great lakes up here in huron county, they received some beach erosion up there. sand drift ad couple of feet, about 18 inches across the m-25 which is the state trunk line there. we have our department of environmental quality has been up there assessing things and right now the locals are still sort of pulling other damage assessments together. jenna: amazing to think manhattan to michigan, this storm has spread so far.

captain, great to speak with you today. we appreciate it very much. >> you're welcome. jon: as we continue the cover the effects in the aftermath of this monster storm we don't want to lose sight of some of the other front burner issues in the world. for instance, did you know a suspect is in custody in connection with the deadly terror attack on our con sue at in libya? how the video might have led to his arrest. ambassador john bolton joins us live with what the u.s. should do too here. monster storm sandy forcing communities across the northeast to postpone or even cancel trick-or-treating. a full report coming up.

jenna: right now a lot of serious news surrounding superstorm sandy. really a beast of its own,

right? can't forget today is halloween. and a lot of kids across the northeast certainly want to go trick-or-treating and eat candy. you can't fault them for that, rick. you have a bunch of kids. i can't count how many you have. >> i have four kids. to say no to halloween will not just fly in my house. not much of a treat if you can't go door-to-door asking for candy. as you said, yep that a lot of areas reeling from sandy. it is too draws dangerous at least today. new york city mayor bloomberg advising parents to use caution. he hasn't canceled halloween but please avoid trick-or-treating in areas that don't seem safe. obviously these pictures on the screen not someplace you want to take your children. there are so many downed power lines. areas still without power. the mayor canceling a new york city tradition, this he has canceled the annual parade in greenwich village. first time in 40 years, jenna, that parade has been canceled. always a wild one.

in new jersey governor christie is considering issuing an executive order that would officially postpone the holiday. city sponsored parades and events are canceled across the state. a lot of towns are actually planning halloween events this coming saturday instead. out in ohio government officials are urging caution for parents there as well. high winds postponing halloween there and downed power lines in some parts of the state. hershey, pennsylvania, arguably the chocolate capital of the world take a look at that. that led to the cancellation of all halloween activities. a state of emergency across all of pennsylvania. something tells me halloween will be celebrated one way or another, today, saturday, whenever. i can't imagine too many parents that have young kids like myself saying too bad, no candy. jenna: look what i brought for the set, for the kids up here. they're not eating it.

they're letting me eat it all. >> post-show meeting i will take it off your hands. jenna: we'll keep some for you, rick, thank you. jon: there are new calls for answers in the deadly benghazi terror attack that left four americans dead including u.s. ambassador chris stevens. that happened on september 11th a group of senators including senator john mccain writing to president obama asking him to stop stonewalling and tell congress and the american people what the administration knew and when they knew it. this comes as now we are learning more about internal surveillance video of the attack which apparently led to the arrest of a tunisia man, ali al-harzi, and a suspect detained in turkey days after the attack. so far u.s. interrogators have not had access to him. ambassador john bolton, former ambassador to the united nations and fox news contributor. he joins us now. the fbi took, well, the investigation into what

happened at the embassy took a long time to get going. now we've got word that this guy, actually two suspects, perhaps, are under arrest but we haven't been able to talk to them yet? >> yeah. this is really outrageous and one of the follow-on consequences from the badly misguided way the obama administration has handled this entire affair, from the lack of security enhancements requested in libya by our people before the september 11 attack, inadequate response on september the 11th itself and then this crazy explanation for weeks and weeks after, the whole thing was caused by the mohammed video. now what you see playing out is the administration's decision to treat this terrorist attack as a law enforcement matter, not as part of the war on terror, but as if it is a bank robbery. what we should have done with that suspect, when we learned he was in turkish custody was tell the turkish authorities, we want him.

don't send him back to tunisia. this is not a matter of international extradition. this is a matter of taking somebody who has been engaged in war against the united states and we want him. we want hill and want to take him to gitmo to interrogate him. jon: i'm reminded when a couple of the suspect iss in the attack on the uss cole were apprehended and given back to yemen to be held in custody there. they escaped. so here is this tunisia guy, wanted in connection with the attack on our consulate there. apparently we have video and facial recognition software that puts him in our compound the night of the attack and yet he has been released, picked up by the turks but released to tunisia custody? >> this whole thing is like a reversion to before the original 9/11 in 2001. the clinton administration, these terrorist attacks, the world trade center, the first world trade center bombing, the attack on the coal, the -- cole and

attacks on our embassies in kenya an tanzania, khobar towers all treated as law enforcement matters. september 11th convinced us this is a war and should be treat as a war. when you try to deal with these attacks as if they're aggravated bank robberies they are going to fail. this is not a choice between rule of law and no rule of law. it is a different paradigm. it is not the criminal law of a constitutional state. it is the law of war which we have in this country which we follow. jon: let's hope we get to the that guy. ambassador john bolton. good to have you on, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: more on that story as it develops. we're down to tamp where governor romney takes to the stage. he has been off the campaign trail due to hurricane sandy. let's take a listen. >> we're going through trauma in a major part of the country, the kind of trauma you experienced here in florida more than once and it is interesting to see how people come together in a circumstance like this.

we have seen folks from all over the country step forward and offer contributions. you see up on our screens a way to give to the red cross. people are doing that all over america, fathering their -- gathering their support in any way they can to help people subjected to this tragedy. please, if you have an extra dollar or two send them along and keep the people who have been in harm's way who have been damaged either personally or threw their property, keep them in your thoughts and prayers. we, we love all of our fellow citizens. we come together at times like this and we want to make sure they have a speedy and quick recovery from their financial and in many cases personal loss. [applause] now people coming together is also what is going to happen i believe on november 7th. and -- [cheers and applause] i know that we have differing viewpoints with

regards to the call pains. up until that point when we get to vote on november 6th. and on november 6th you will see us describe our respective visions for the country. my view is pretty straightforward. i believe this is a time for america to take a different course. this should be a turning point for our country. i say that because i look where we are and with 23 million americans, you think about that, these are real people, these are folks trying to put food on the table, 23 million people struggling to find a good job. this is something that requires in my view a different path than we've been on. likewise we have half our kids coming out of college, who can't find work. this hasn't happened before in our history. we're at a 30-year low in new business formations. this is a real a nation that normally grows through innovation and risk-taking and startups of all kinds. we also have one out of six people living in poverty. we need to take a new

course. we have 47 million people on food stamps. think of that. richest country in the history of the earth. largest economy in the world, and yet 47 million people need food stamps? so i believe that this is the year for us to take a different course. i will bring real change and real reform in a -- that brings us together. [cheers and applause] now i, i, i don't just talk about change. i actually have a plan to execute change and to make it happen. [cheers and applause] and there are five parts to that. and i hope you understand what they are. if you don't, let me just remind you. number one, i really do believe we were given kind of an ace in the hole, that is someone learned how to drill in the earth not just vertically but horizontally and tap into pockets of oil

and gas. as a result we have huge new resources in natural gas and oil. number one for me is taking full advantage of our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear and our renewables. [cheers and applause] that creates by the way a lot of jobs in the energy states of course but it also creates a lot of jobs in states that use energy because manufacturing of all kind uses energy. some more than others. and when energy is low cost and abundant as it will be as we take advantage of these resources we'll bring manufacturing back. it is already beginning to happen. we're going to see more of it happen. we'll get more manufacturing back in this country. we're going to see this economy take off. with that, number one. number two, trade. it is good for us to be able to trade with other nations, particularly latin america. [cheers and applause] we have some, we have some real advantages in trading with latin america. many of our citizens have

roots there. we speak the language in many corners of our nation. the time zone of course is friendly for us. and you know latin america's economy is almost as large as that of china. it is a large middle class and growing middle class. this is a big opportunity for us to trade and to expand the sales of our goods and services in latin america. but by the way, if nations cheat and china has cheated over the years, that has to stop. we can't let them steal our jobs with unfair trade practices. [cheers and applause] number three, number three, number one is energy, number two is trade, number three we have to make sure our people are getting the skills they need to succeed. that is not only training programs for our current workers but also we've got to make sure that our schools stop being at the bottom of the pile. we're at the bottom third or bottom quartile. instead they have got to become world class, globally competitive. now you have done something

about that here, governor. this governor here was the education governor. that all of us looked at with great admiration. [cheers and applause] and he, he could describe this a lot better than i can but one of the things he did was grade schools so that parents could determine which schools were succeeding and which ones weren't. and then if a school was not succeeding, why the kids in that school were given the ability to go to another school. could be a charter school or another public school. so kids got choice in part based upon the success of the schools. and i intend to do the same thing, helping all the states across this country. one, make sure that schools are graded so parents can tell which schools are succeeding and which aren't. and number two, the federal dollars that we give to states and localities, two big buckets, one is called title one and one is idea money. those dollars i will have follow the student, so if a

child wants to go to a different school or his or her parents do, they have the capacity to do that. [cheers and applause] now you might, you might be inclined to think that was just a brilliant idea by me and my team. but the truth is, about a year and a half or two years ago, i happened to be meeting in the office of one former governor jeb bush and i said what can i do to encourage school choice? and he said, well, you could always connect federal dollars to school choice which is precisely what i've done. thank you, governor. [cheers and applause] number four, number four, if we're going to deal with the real problems america has, and get entrepreneurs to start businesses and big companies to decide to expand in america and put their dollars here, they're going to have to be convinced that we're not on the road to greece, because if they think america is headed for economic crisis, they're not going to risk

their life savings or risk their capital to build an america and invest in america. and that is one reason why it is so critical for us to finally cut federal spending, to cap federal spending and get on track to a balanced budget. [applause] and number, five, number, five, i want to champion small business. we've got to help small business grow and thrive. [cheers and applause] you know about, about 2/3 of the jobs in america come from small business. so we want to make it easier for small businesses to open their doors and keep in business. and i know, y'all understand that to have an economy work and businesses to work and people to be able to hire that there have to be regulations and laws. you couldn't have people opening up a bank in their backyard and, you know,

taking money from their neighbor and sending it to someone else. it would be a mess. so you have to laws and regulations but you also have to make sure the regulations are up-to-date and modern and they're not designed to be so burdensome that they crush certain competitors. and what's happened over time these regulations have made it easier and easier for great big banks and the big corporations with all their lawyers but they have crushed a lot of small businesses. we've got it wrong. regulators have to turn around and help small business and get small business growing again. [cheers and applause] jenna: governor romney in tampa at a rally. less than a week away from election day talking about his five-point plan. he has a few other stops in florida as carl cameron reported to us earlier. still a very, very close race in that state. jon? jon: both campaigns of course have had to change their strategies, change their itineraries as a result of the superstorm that slammed into the northeast.

many of the travel plans that president obama and governor romney had intended to make, well, it resulted in something of a political impact. let's talk about it now with a couple of people who have watched these campaigns. mary katharine ham is the editor-at-large of hotair.com. also a fox news contributor. simon rosenberg, the president and founder of the new democrat network. a former clinton campaign advisor. you heard governor romney there in florida. florida has had its share of misery. i was living there when hurricane andrew hit. how do you conduct a political campaign in this environment, simon, you know, when so many people are hurting, have no power, the last thing they want to hear or on television on the radio is another attacked a? >> well i think there, the president is being the president. i mean he's out, obviously

at red cross and at fema and he is clearly leading the recovery effort right now. i think he has a little bit of a political advantage over mitt romney in the sense that mitt romney is just a candidate trying to talk about what is going on when the president has the advantage of actually being responsible for the recovery effort right now. and i think he is doing a good job. he has been praised by pub be republicans and democrats alike last few days for being responsive to their needs. he is going up to new jersey with chris christie to take a personal inspection what is going on. clearly this changed the race a little bit. i think at the end of the day this will only be an advantage of barack obama if there is perception that the recovery has been well-handled. it is not about pictures. it is about out comes. we have five days to see if he does a good job. jon: does the public, mary katherine, reach out, wrap the president in the warm embrace of a job well-done, nation coming together in time of crisis?

>> i think this is a concern for both campaigns because any human being, and i do include politicians and those of us pay attention to politics 20 hours a day, narrowly in that category of human beings the main concern is the folks on the ground who are hurt and make sure they get served and back on their feet as soon as possible in these communities. i think that is the number one concern. as part of that concern it is necessary to tamp down i think some of the partisan tone which has been, soft pedaled in the past couple days in romney campaign. president obama back in washington dealing with sandy response. there are advantages to incumbency. i can go to the red cross in new jersey and be seen how well he is in charge of situation. i'm not sure in five days you find out whether they responded well or not but there has been a fairly decent record in the tornadoes of 2011, the oil spill, slightly different story. but i'm not sure that will affect the election but i do think that people can hear

these messages and campaign can be ongoing. the other thing for obama he is off the trail where i think he is actually generally stronger than romney is. so that might hurt him a tiny bit. jon: it is not exactly perfect parallel but something like this happened late in the campaign of 2008 when the financial crisis hit. john mccain decided to suspend his campaign. let's take a four-year flash back now. >> tomorrow morning i'll suspend my campaign and return to washington after speaking at the clinton global initiative. i've spoken to senator obama and informed him of my decision. and i have asked him to join me. i'm calling on the president to convene a leadership meeting from both houses of congress, including senator obama and myself. it's time for both parties to come together to solve this problem. >> it's my belief that this

is exactly the time when the american people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess. and i think that it is, it is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once. jon: so then senator obama answering john mccain's call to get off of the campaign trail. it seemed like mccain's campaign never really recovered from that time away. are there parallels here, mary katherine? are there warnings for each side? >> i think in light of those comments it is a little ironic for folks on the left to go after romney for being on the trail at all. i think the country is than capable of having two conversations, caring for its citizens and also talking about the election at the same time. i think mccain's problem was partly he suspended campaign and didn't seem to have a plan once he got to washington. that is what he was roundly

criticized for. but, you know, i think you do get into a situation where you're ironically politicizing by arguing someone else is politicizing, folks on the left for going after romney for having a disaster response as part of a campaign rally where people were bringing stuff and donating to red cross. then you get into some sticky business. jon: it is a long way from florida where mitt romney is now, talking about the last four years in these economic doldrums we've been in, simon. the president is going to have to deal with that. >> well, he is back on the campaign trail tomorrow. he has been, he suspended his campaign in essence for three days. went back to his day job which is actually being president of the united states and has done and been praised again by governors and mayors of both parties for the government's response during this crisis. obviously all of our hearts and minds go out and to all the people in the afflicted areas in the united states but i think, look we're back full bore campaign tomorrow.

we have a few days evident are. democrats feel really good where we are right now. the polls last couple days very strong for the president. jon: we'll see. >> it will be very close election. jon: the computer is, the computer is about to cut me off. mary katharine ham, simon rosenberg. thank you both. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! oh...there you go.

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that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. jenna: we continue to report on sandy we really appreciate it when viewers help us report out the story and show us what is affecting their neighborhoods. you sent images that we appreciate. rick has a few to show us now. rick? >> we've been going through them. such an enormous storm. we've been getting powerful pictures from so many different place, jenna. this is from rob in port huron, michigan. this is taken at the mouth of lake huron, two miles from the canadian border. you see the tree done on top of the car. 75 mile-an-hour wind gusts all the way up there. from michigan head to

pennsylvania. stacy sending us a picture of a big ol' pine tree brought down on top of her neighbor's house. thankfully she says no one was hurt. the damage to the house, a lot less than they thought once they pulled the thing off? in northern ohio, guy sent it in to ureport. that is a church in the suburb that lost its top literally. the cries the savior orthodox church will have rebuilding to do as you can tell. in west virginia. this picture was sent in anonymously. this is scene from a mountaintop. that is tables and chairs you can see the top of. snow already more than three feet on the ground, still coming down. as always we ask that safety comes first when you're taking these pictures to us. you can do that by sending them along to foxnews.co foxnews.com/ureport. back to you.

jenna: that collection shows us how widespread the storm is from so many states. >> from a big part of the country. jenna. jenna: thanks, rick. jon: millions of people impacted from record rain to record storm surges to the massive snow fall rick was showinging us. superstorm sandy has everything. we'll take you to one of the hardest hit regions coming up.

jon: a fox news alert now and startling new numbers coming out of europe and they are not good. unemployment in the 17-country eurozone at record 11.6ers%. just another sign large

parts of the region are in recession or going toward recession, triggering street demonstrations like that one. kitty logan live from london. kitty? >> reporter: we've seen a steady rise in unemployment in europe over the past year. there are now 18 1/2 million people out of work in the eurozone. spain, they're about a quarter of the population is without a job. if you're young, under 25, the chances are that 50% of those young people can't find any work at all. predictions are the situation could worsen over the next year. that affects investment. people don't want to put money into the economy and businesses at the moment. there is a lot of anger amongst the spanish population. they have been pouring out onto the streets in recent months protesting against budget cuts. calling on the government to quit. also today, more bad news out of greece. the government there has predict next year's economy

will worsen. we'll see more of a recession there. the economy they say will shrink. the debts are a lot worse than first thought. and that means some very tough decisions ahead for the greek government. they have got to meet new austerity conditions for bailout terms that have to be renegotiated. and that means a lot more frustration for the greek people. also in greece, of course, about 25% there too are unemployed, about a similar figure to spain. in recent months of course we're also seeing greeks protesting in athens. they don't see any hope for the future. no prospects. many greeks there living in poverty with no hope of a job. there is some small hope in the european gloom. german economy does remain strong. unemployment there is the lowest in europe. here in the u.k. the recession is officially over. only just so. certainly will take a lot longer for the economy here to rover properly, jon. jon: more bad economic news on the horizon. and i wouldn't be surprised if we see more riots as

well. kitty logan. thank you. jenna: we'll look what is happening in our economy right now. after two days of unprecedented closure for the stock market because of weather, more than 100 years before we saw that happen again, the stock market is open. we see a little movement but barely. this has to do with companies exposure toward home repair for example, lowe's, home depot, those stocks look like there is interest from investors today. but as you can see the markets relatively flat. certainly a lot to keep an eye on when sandy continues to go across the country. one of the big impacts left from the storm is the international travel nightmare is really created. however we're seeing today more airports are beginning to reopen. that is helping to ease this travel nightmare. this is a scene in san francisco, just one of the airports dealing with a flood of passengers, stranded by 18,000 plus fights canceled due to the

storm. runways at new york's laguardia, airport, that is the runway, still underwater. however, jfk and newark airports again, big international hubs, both reopened this morning. they have limited service but at least they're trying to get back in business. jon: wow! our coverage of the aftermath of superstorm sandy continues. dramatic video showing sandy's reach in the great lakes next hour. we'll also speak live with the coast guard patrolling lake michigan about the problems they're facing there. also the snow keeps coming in the mountain state. the latest on blizzard conditions right now in west virginia. plus, less than a week away, six days until the presidential election, governor romney and president obama about to return to the campaign trail. we'll update you.

>> reporter: fox news alert, we're here in the control room monitoring the after effects of santa, and we -- sandy, and that's a live picture from el cins, west virginia. snow on the ground, we'll tell you about the blizzard-like conditions there and what's in store. also the stock market back in business today after a two-day shutdown. the stock exchange running on generators, will we see a hurricane rally? down about 14 points right now. and, oh, yeah, election day is six days away. we'll tell you how each candidate is adjusting his schedule post-sandy and where they each are today. all of that and breaking news as the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. ♪ jenna: well, disaster, devastation, rick just showed us a little bit, now millions of americans are struggling to recover. this record storm leaving behind a trail of ruin. the u.s. death toll right now

rising to 59. we welcome you to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. the damage is done, it's time to try to recover from widespread catastrophe, and it's not going to be easy. this epic task could take months, a year, maybe even more, and there's still more damage taking place right now with a major fire raging through a town on the jersey shore hit hard by the hurricane, president obama is headed to atlantic city to inspect the battered state with governor chris christie. millions are still without power, some as far away from where the storm made landfall as michigan. and it could be a week or more before all of the lights go back on. in ohio there is heavy flooding. rescuers using rafts to help evacuate people trapped by the rapidly-rising flood waters. in west virginia five deaths blamed on the storm, including one man who died of a heart attack while shoveling snow. another was clearing tree debris from his home. here in the tristate region, transportation remains crippled

with no train service and a limited bus schedule. many bridges have reopened, but drivers are facing very heavy traffic. flights are resuming at newark and kennedy international, but laguardia is still shut down. david lee miller live in lower manhattan where a record storm surge left behind a huge mess and massive headaches. i guess the flooding is over, what about the water, is it receding, david? >> reporter: not entirely, jon. take a look here at the tunnel that runs under battery park in lower manhattan. you can see for yourself the extent of the water that does remain. you can see what looks like diesel fuel close to the blacktop. let's walk a little bit closer to the tunnel itself, and perhaps you can see off in the distance there's a partially submerged truck, looks like a department of transportation truck. it's hard to tell. no idea how long it's going to take to pump the water out of this tunnel. this is a crucial roadway that

connects the east side of manhattan with the west side on the southernmost tip of the island. and there's also significant flooding, jon, throughout the entire new york city subway system. one subway station in particular that we visited this morning had flooding as deep as 50 feet, all 468 subway stations in new york city, 600 miles of track, completely idle. and the damage also extends to the outer boroughs. let me tell you about staten island. we are told that the staten island ferry station which commuters as well as tourists use completely devastated, we are told, on the staten island side. and also significant damage across the hudson in the city of hoboken which is directory across from -- directly across from manhattan. as many as 20,000 people want to be evacuated. we are told that they are in desperate need of a number of things including food, generators as well as emergency craft such as rafts in order to

help rescue those trapped in their homes. jon? jon: and, you know, with all this flooding, it's hard or to bring the power back on. what's the situation when it comes to power? >> reporter: oh, the crews are working feverishly over here to my left, you can see con ed trucks, three of them here, there are con ed trucks, and that's the utility that covers manhattan all throughout the city. they are going to be working for weeks, if not months restoring the damage that has been done. in total in new york state there are some two million people without power, hundreds and hundreds of thousands in lower manhattan do not have electricity, as many as 22% of the people who live in manhattan do not have electricity. and in addition to the crews i just showed you, jon, there are or emergency utility workers coming to help out from around the country. there are some, for example, 200 crews coming from the state of california, and as bad as the

damage is here in manhattan, it's even worse in portions of long island as well as new jersey. consider this: 62% of the people who live in the garden state are now without power. the governor there, chris christie, does say though the state is going to recover, but what no one seems to be able to say is how long it's going to take before all the lights finally come back on. jon, back to you. jon: that water behind you and the flooded truck really tells the story. david lee miller, thank you. jenna: it's an unbelievable picture really. in the meantime, that storm that we're talking about, of course, sandy, hitting the midwest as well and creating more than 20-foot waves in lake michigan. residents are being urged to stay away from the water there as the threat of flooding still persists. lieutenant brian dykens joins us now by the phone. tell us about the conditions there today. >> good afternoon, jenna. yes, today it seems to be

subsiding a little more than yesterday, but yesterday we did experience the second largest recorded wave height in history on lake michigan at 21 feet in the middle of the lake. this has caused concerns for people along the lake front as well as people who may want to surf and go out in the wave action, but it's very dangerous, and we urge everyone to stay away from the water. jenna: i have some pictures, i believe, of one of your vessels out on the lake, and we'll show those, you can actually see the boat the first time going along, and it looks like choppy waves, and then the second shot, basically, you only see the very, very top of the boat. it might be hard of -- for some of our viewers to see, but just the tip of it. you can tell how rough the waves are. what are your concerns over the next few days? you said thewet seems to be subsiding, does it mean that it's just back to normal working hours, you know, everybody's just back to normal, or is there still some concerns that you have? >> we still have some concerns.

there is a report or a forecast for 10-15 foot waves throughout lake michigan until the end of the weekend, so we just ask everyone to stay away, not to go surfing and just be safe so, you know, we don't have to go out there. you see the picture of boats, it's a unique training opportunity for our men and women to go out just in case they do have to go out and save anybody. but, you know, we try to stay out of that water because it's unsafe for everybody. jenna: that was important to mention, that was a training that you all were doing yesterday just because you had these conditions, but did you have to rescue anybody? >> no, ma'am, we have not had to rescue anyone. the maritime industry on the great lakes has taken a hit as well, a lot of the large freighters and con tabor -- container ships throughout the lake have gone into port to anchor up or seek safe harbor. jenna: that's good news. good to get some good training in, but glad everybody's okay. lieutenant, great to have you on the program, thank you so much. >> thank you, ma'am. have a good day. jon: and that training looks

pretty dicey. jenna: i don't think i could do that. jon: those boats look like corks out there on the lake. we will have much more of our continuing storm coverage plus other news we're bringing to you. some senators send a letter to president obama. they want answers about the deadly terror attack in libya. plus, new head-to-head polls in some key battleground states. we will run the numbers, what they mean as these candidates head back to the campaign trail. questions? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

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jon: for some folks right now, snow is the biggest problem left by sandy. take a look at is scene in western maryland, parts of garrett county getting hit with more than 2 feet of snow. sandy is now blamed for five deaths in west virginia, crews are racing to clear and reopen the roads there. jimmy georgia net is the director of homeland security and emergency management, he joins i now live -- us now live on the phone.

what is your biggest challenge, jimmy? >> well, the largest challenge is to continue to get access to some of the areas and get power restored. we still have a little over 200,000 people without power, a lot of the power outages are caused by downed trees, and so we have crews from our forestry division, our division of highways and national guard working with the power companies to get access to where these lines are down to try to get the power restored as quickly as only to. jon: i know some citizens, residents, were caught off guard by the snow. what about your department? they were talking about bad weather. did you think it would be like this? >> yes. we had been planning for this several days in advance of the event, had been monitoring the weather. we anticipated the snow in our mountain counties. we anticipated the power outages. we just went through in this summer, so we had anticipated it, but there's not a whole lot

you can do until after it's over, and then you try to get access and get everything back as quickly as possible. jon: it's a wet snow, too, you've still got trees with some leaves on them, i imagine that's just compounding the problem, a lot of broken trees and downed timber. >> it has compounded the problem, and another concern we have is the weight of the snow on buildingses. we have had several buildings that have collapsed. we had an apartment building in one of our counties early this morning collapse, and we have several people sheltered as a result of that. jon: and, you know, as powerful as a snowplow is, it can't do much with a multiton tree blocking the route. >> that's correct. and, again, that's why we have those resources. we're working very closely with our fema partners to bring in additional resources to help cut some of those trees out, and, you know, our goal is to get the power restored as quickly as we can for our citizens. jon: west virginia yangs are a hearty sort, people are used to fending for themselves, but in a

situation like this when you've got widespread power outages and people just about immobilized, you must have some real concerns about, you know, folks who might need medical care, hospital visits, that sort of thing. >> well, you know, west virginians are a resilient people, and they tend to take care of themselves, as you said. that's why we're trying to get the roads open as quickly as we can. most of our major arteries are open, we're down to just a few isolated areas that have the roads closed, and we're working, you know, with our division of transportation to help get those other secondary roads open. jon: wow. we're seeing, you know, cars being towed, that sort of thing. i know we said in the introduction that five people have been killed. is that traffic schedules and that -- accidents and that sort of thing? enter we've had five fatal is -- fatalities as a result, one was from a downed tree, one was from a car accident, i think one was having a heart attack, so there

are a variety of reasons for the deaths. jon: and what about, you know, emergency response personnel, ambulances and that kind of thing, are they able to get around? >> in most areas they're able to get around without any issues. we do have a couple parts of the state in the mountainous areas where a lot of the roads are still blocked, and they're working to gain access there. jon: unbelievable weather for this time of year. jimmy ganette in west virginia, thank you, sir. we'll let you get back to your job. >> thank you. jenna: we just got some brand new video in from breezy point, queens, this is the area of new york city where a massive fire destroyed or really severely damaged at least 130 homes. you can see some of the firefighters there working through the rubble, but this goes down in history as one of the worst fires ever in new york city. this area of queens is known as an area where a lot of policemen and firefighters have their homes, it's a traditional area where that's where that

community is. so it's a little bit ironic in the worst way that this is where this fire took place. most of the folks in this area evacuated, thankfully, because we can still report at this time -- and we're still getting information -- that there are no injuries from the scene that you're seeing in front of you. but here's how it was described in one newspaper when everyone was responding, and i say everyone, all of the emergency personnel was responding in the city on monday night to a variety of different things. they suddenly heard that there was a fire in breezy point. by the time fire trucks arrived, there was a mote chest high around many of these homes, and the winds that were whipping through this area were causing the flames just to spread as quickly as you can see on your screen now. so they had two things they were dealing with, they were dealing with the storm surge because this is right on the water, and then they were dealing with this massive fire. as you can see from the new video, though, very, very little left and so lucky that no one --

as we know it now -- injured or died from this catastrophic event. jon: unbelievable if you think about it. i mean, so many people, you know, there might be someone who would try to ride out a storm like this, then the storm surge comes in, they crawl up in the attic. that's where you have to go. jenna: right. jon: and if your home catches fire while you're in the attic, it's just amazing people heeded the warning. jenna: one resident was quoted in one new york paper saying he wasn't going to evacuate, and he was in the basement, and suddenly the water just pushed in his windows, and he described it as feeling like he was on the titanic, this water was rushing in, and he just ran up the stairs as fast as he could because he had family in the house. so just imagine what some of these families are going through today. it's not just today, is it, jon? but it's the weeks and months to come of recovery and trying to rebuild.

and as janice dean just told us, tentatively another storm headed in our direction. jon: but the important thing is all those folks got out with their lives, and that's what really matters. so we are mixing some storm coverage with politics. the presidential election coming down to the wire in several key swing states. we're going to take a look at one of the most heated battlegrounds, a state that got millions of your tax dollars. also, two young new york city boys disappearing in sandy's storm surge. search efforts are underway right now. we'll update you. smoothest riding. it's got the most torque, the smoothest suspension, the best storage, class-leading comfort, and a revolutionary collection of versatile accessories. introducing the all-new, 60 horsepower ranger xp 900, a whole new class of hardest working, smoothest riding.

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jenna: welcome back, everyone, as we piece together the aftermath of hurricane sandy at least in this area, a desperate search is going on right now in new york city for two young boys who disappeared during the storm. rick has more for us from the newsroom.

>> reporter: heartbreaking story, jenna. this is staten island, one of the five boroughs of new york city, and we have some brand new video just in to the newsroom of the search and rescue operation that's going on. teams are looking for these two young children, they've been missing since the storm surge hit monday night. the boy, who are 4 and 2 years old, were separated from their mother while they were walking with her out on the street. now, they had left their home because they had lost power, and police say they were headed towards a shelter to try to ride out the storm there. just a heart wrenching story. crews are searching these marshy areas that you saw on the screen there for, that's right around the area where the boys and their mom were. again, the search for two new york city boys washed away in that surge. we hope there's good news on this, jenna, and as soon as we hear anything, we'll let you know. jenna: we'll hope for that as well, rick. thank you. jon: we are down to the final six days of this 2012 campaign, and new poll numbers show the

race remains extremely close in ohio, florida and virginia, three of the big battleground states. this poll, conducted by quinnipiac university for "the new york times" and cbs news shows president obama ahead 50-45 among likely voters in ohio, that is unchanged from last week. the race has gotten a lot closer in florida where support for governor romney is surging higher. the race there now a virtual tie, 48-47, five weeks ago the president was winning by nine. in virginia the president is leading by two points, 49-47. three weeks ago he was ahead by five. let's talk about these numbers with charlie hurt, a columnist for the washington times. so if you were one of these candidates, which would you rather be given the trend lines, charlie? >> i think that given the fact that all of these polls are closing which, by the way, is not very surprising the polls are closing at this point in the race, but they're all sort of closing in mitt romney's favor, i think i would rather be mitt

romney at this exact moment. but, obviously, you know, when you look at polls such as ohio which is, you know, historically a must-win state for either candidate, you know, obama is still faring pretty well according to the polls. and i guess the big question is how much faith we can put in those polls at this point. jon: so what's up with ohio? why is the president doing so well there? >> i think that the big reason is because the one part of the economy that president obama has really sort of touted is the massive bailout of the auto industry, and if you listen to the ads that are run in ohio which has a lot of auto manufacturing, it almost sounds like president obama's running for president of the auto industry as opposed to president of the united states. he really has brought that home, and i think that that has been as big a reason as any for why his numbers have remained somewhat steady or steadier than

in other states. that also, you know, the union support is still -- unions are still pretty powerful in a place like ohio, and i think that that, you know, that is probably helping obama to some degree as well. jon: some interesting numbers. this quinnipiac poll said that three-quarters of the voters roughly say the economy is either their first or second concern. another quarter of the voters say that the budget deficit their top concern. those groups of voters said that they feel that governor romney is better positioned or better prepared to deal with those two issues. if that's the case, again, i ask why are the president's numbers so high? >> jon, this is the most mystifying thing to me, and quite frankly, it's one of the reasons why i sort of feel -- i have a lot of reservations about a lot of these polls. because if you were talking about any other time where you had unemployment as high as it

is today, the debt as high, as huge as it is today, i would tell you that the incumbent was going to lose in a landslide. and i still think that maybe that may be possible. you know, we don't know how reliable these -- you never know how reliable the polls are until election day. but it's just absolutely mystifying to me. and either this guy has an amazing staying power that has never been seen in politics before, or, you know, come next tuesday he's going to get the doors blown off. jon: well, 32 years ago, october 27th in the national polls, jimmy carter was beating ronald reagan 50-45%, so anything can happen. >> that's right. and that's the most important number to think about right now. jon: charlie hurt from the washington times, thanks. >> thanks, jon. jenna: right now the obama campaign is running new ads in michigan highlighting the president's support of the auto industry. they're not the only ones getting active in michigan. of it's just one big swing state where the race is getting tighter by the days.

16 electoral votes up for grabs, the average price for a gallon of gasoline, a daily read on how you feel about the economy sometimes, is at $3.49, that's right about in line with the national average, and here's a look at the real clear politics polling average showing president obama up three points in michigan. bill ballenger is back with us now to talk about what's going on in michigan. so, bill, how do these polls compare to what we've seen over the last couple weeks? >> they're tighter. mitt romney has pulled within shouting distance of the president. this is very much like 2004, john kerry led bush by about this margin, about 3% about a week out, and john kerry actually ended up winning michigan by about that margin, but the bush campaign had kerry so worried that he came in to michigan on sunday before the election to campaign. the difference this time around is neither candidate has come to michigan personally since early

summer. jenna: and, bill, that was something you brought up to us a couple weeks ago. you said, listen, it's very important that both candidates get on the ground in michigan, and neither have. what do you make of that? >> well, i don't think obama has felt he needs to get here. i think the obama campaign has been pretty confident they already have michigan wrapped up. i think romney, to win, would have to show up. and it would seem to me to be pretty easy. he could be in toledo, and he could step across the state line into monroe, and he'd be in michigan. i think that might push him across the finish line or at least cut down the margin by which he loses michigan. it's very, very tight here. jenna: david axel rod was just doing a conference call, ed henry was tweeting about it, and once again, david axelrod will shave his moustache if obama loses in michigan. would you take that bet?

[laughter] >> that could be funny. honestly, the money that is now going to be put into the race here, the obama campaign for the first time is going to spend money here, almost a million dollars, in cable and network tv and metro detroit area beginning thursday to try and counter the surge by romney here at the end. and romney-affiliated super pacs are spending $2.2 million between now and election day here in michigan. jenna:. okay, real quickly, your gut tells you what about who wins the state? >> you still have to give barack obama a mild edge. but again, like everything is happening nationally, it's getting very tight, and i wouldn't be shocked if mitt romney pulled off the shocker next tuesday. jenna: always nice to see you, bill. >> my pleasure, jenna. jon: wow. meantime, governor romney is also focusing on, focusing his efforts on another key swing state with just six days to go til the election. as we learn president obama also plans to get back on the campaign trail starting

tomorrow. first, though, minutes from now the president will land in atlantic city, new jersey, one of the hardest-hit areas in this storm. he will tour the damage with governor chris christie. we'll take you there live. jenna shared her recipe with sharon, who emailed it to emily, who sent it to cindy, who wondered why her soup wasn't quite the same. the recipe's not the recipe... ohhh. [ female announcer ] ...without swanson. the broth cooks trust most when making soup. mmmm! [ female announcer ] the secret is swanson.

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call today. remember, medicare supplement insurance helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay -- expenses that could really add up. these kinds of plans could save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs... you'll be able choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. and you never need referrals. so don't wait. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions, and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. jenna: more brand new video coming in from new jersey. rick has more from the newsroom. rick? >> belmar, new jersey, one of the beach towns we've been talking about, we'll show you on a map of the new jersey coastline.

belmar is south of asbury park. famous for bruce springsteen there. belmar, that area, just south of where as bury park is. a mandatory evacuation was ordered ahead of sandy. as you hook at these pictures, that was a good move. 3/4 of the town underwater. folks officially not allowed in to see the damage. not stopping several people including the guy we saw a moment ago in his kayak paddle didding the streets there, paddle in hand. power remains out. water level still very high as you can see. there is curfew for anyone who ignored that evacuation, one of the seaside communities surveying the damage today as we learn more, we'll keep you posted. jenna: rick, thank you. >> president obama plans to resume campaigning tomorrow with stops in nevada, colorado, and wisconsin. meanwhile governor romney is on the campaign trail in florida. senior national

correspondent john roberts is live in coral gables for us now. john? >> reporter: good morning to you. good afternoon to you, actually, jon. the governor fully out in the campaign trail here in florida where the "real clear politics" average shows there is a single point between the two of them with romney on top. he is renewing his closing argument four real change, starts on day one. new cbs news "new york times" poll shows him leading the president on questions of leadership and the economy. that is where the governor is focusing today in a rally that just wrapped up in tampa, telling people what it will take to get past his five-point plan to help grow the economy. >> for those things to happen it will require something that washington talks about but has not done in a long, long time. that is truly reaching across the aisle and finding good democrats and good republicans that will come together and find common ground and work in the interests of the american people, not just in the interests of politics. [cheers and applause]

>> reporter: there was a lot of talk about bipartisanship in the speech as there will be here in miami as well. governor romney reminding people of the time he was governor of massachusetts working with a legislature 85% democrat, managing to turn a deficit into a surplus. >> we were able to get to a point where $3 billion budget gap in my first year turned into a 2 billion dollar rainy day fund by the time i left. this can happen. it has to happen in washington. we've got to come together. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: with the president out there this afternoon touring storm damage in new jersey what was interesting about today's speech in tampa, we'll see it again here in miami, no direct attacks against the president. in fact governor romney didn't even mention mr. obama. instead focusing on his optimistic vision of what the american future would look like under a romney administration. >> clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. i'm convinced that is true,

you guys. clear eyes here in florida, full hearts. we can't lose. we'll take back america. we'll keep it strong. we're going to overcome our challenges and keep america the hope of the earth. i need your vote on november 6th. get out and vote early. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: get out and vote early. that is the message of both campaigns are promoting. early voting has been here in florida since saturday the obama campaign in a new video featuring campaign manager jim messina claiming to have advantage in all battle ground states and early voting in the polls. president obama as the map. governor romney has myth is selling illusion and delusion. if you're the incumbent and think can cruise to victory as many incumbents should be able to you don't put out a web video like that and have a conference call this close to the election unless you're worried about something. part of what they're wore remembered about, the romney campaign is trying to expand

territory into states like minnesota and pennsylvania where polls show the numbers are tighting. jon? jon: we just heard michigan also very tight. john roberts there in coral gables, florida, with the romney campaign. john, thank you. jenna: we'll turn back to the weather now, back to the massive storm pounding several states with all sorts of type of weather. joe bastardi, is chief meteorologist at weatherbell.com. joe, how long will sandy be swirling around this country? >> well, sandy is weakening leg right now. it will be moving off to the northeast over next couple days. basically now is a regular storm. we have seen storms in this particular, this particular state where it's actually weakening like this, delivering snow shower activity and left over snows into the mountains of west virgina. certainly after the monumental snowstorm, which by the way was well-forecasted in there. we knew the very, very cold air was going to pour into the western side of this.

even if sandy had not come up the coast you would still have seen a pretty big snowstorms in the central appalachians out of this pattern because there is some very, very cold air. if you look at it since the mid-july heat we've had four or five big cold air masses coming to the united states in the very area that was hottest in july and this is the latest of them. jenna: joe does this tell us anything what we should expect for the next several months for what winter will look like for this part of the country? >> i think winter is off to a fast start. weather bell, my company, has coldest november since 2002 for the nation as a whole forecasted. but i also think that there may be a significant break in the middle part of the winter. then we sort of end the winter the way we started back cold again. it is a fascinating situation because you have a bunch of different things going on. the atlantic ocean is very warm. that is why you're seeing an uptick in the hurricane activity. but the pacific is at record

cold levels. we have the big switch in the pacific from where it was 10, 20 years ago. that is part of overall climate cycle that leads to hot, dry summers in the central part of the united states. leads to a lot of your cain activity in the atlantic like the 1950s and wenters of great variability. jenna: we concentrate along the coast a lot because it is densely populated. travel hubs are affected and has international simply kigs. you say we should have weather like this the next five to 10 years in this particular area? why is that? >> because of cycle we're in. just like the 1950s. back in 2006, i drew a lot of hassles by 2015 at least two major hurricanes will hit the northeast part of the united states. arguably, irene and sandy were not major hurricanes on the salve fir simpson scale. but if you look back at the 1950s a similar type of weather patterns produced

tin major hurricanes up the eastern seaboard in a seven-year period including one, donna, gave hurricane-force winds everywhere from florida to maine. there is nothing new under the sun. you're seeing recycling what happened before except a lot of people don't know what happened before. a lot of that people say where is this coming from? basically go back and take a look at the maps. you will see where it came from. jenna: we forget quickly. tough to forget images we're seeing out of this storm. joe, nice to have you with us today. we appreciate the context very much. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me. jon: prayers for the victims it appeared survivors of superstorm sandy. pope benedict offering his condolences from the vatican expressing solidarity with all of the recovery crews. plus a new call for president obama to answer key questions about the deadly terrorist attack that took the life of our ambassador in libya and three others. we'll talk with senator kelly ayotte about the long list of lingering questions she has, as do other

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jon: developments in washington now. four united states senators sent a letter to the obama administration, demanding the white house release surveillance video of the deadly terrorist attack last month in libya. they say the american people destoif to know all the facts about the attack which resulted in the murder of four americans including ambassador chris stevens. >> when you look at the warnings, two attacks on our consulate, the warnings by our ambassador chris stevens, the last message he wrote before he was murdered was talking about the security requirements that were necessary. why didn't the president of the united states know about it? maybe it was one of the briefings that he didn't attend. but the point is the president should have known about it, action should have been taken. jon: our next guest also signed that letter. new hampshire senator kelly ayotte is a member of the armed services committee. senator, what is your major

concern? >> my major concern is that the american people deserve to know answers what happened in benghazi, before we know that there were two prior attacks on the consulate, including one in june where there was a hole blown in the security perimeter that 40 people could go through, the british ambassador was attacked and in fact his convoy and our people went and helped him, actually 20 minutes after the attack. then they were sent away, meaning we didn't keep adequate security at our consulate. so the british left. the french left. the red cross left. why wasn't our consulate secured? what did the president know about the prior attacks on the consulate? we have written to the president because a group of us have written about a half dozen letters to the administration so far. they have not answered our letters about prior security. during it, why were requests for assistance denied to those four brave americans there. who were murdered, finally afterwards, why did they

tell the american people this was spontaneous reaction to the video when that was not true. in fact, e-mails went to the white house letting them know it was attached to a terrorist event. this is really disturbing the american people deserve the truth. frankly we have written already half a dozen letters, jon. they have not answered us. they're stonewalling us. i think they're trying to run out the clock until this election. by the way, this is not a republican issue. this is about the american people knowing the truth when four brave americans have been murdered. jon: i will get to the politics of it in just a minute but i wanted to ask you this question because senator mccain made a point this morning that really struck me. he said a year-and-a-half, ago, not quite. when that top secret raid took out usama bin laden, within less than 24 hours we knew everything about it. we knew things we probably shouldn't have known or didn't need to know and we knew all about it. why do we know so little about what happened in benghazi and how we responded to it?

>> jon, what worries me the most this didn't fit the administration's narrative. remember the president kept running saying al qaeda is on the run. we got usama bin laden and i don't think they wanted to come out and call this what it was, a terrorist attack. whereas when it came to revealing seal team six and also very important intelligence program that put people at risk when it made them look good, all of the details were forthcoming even if they were going to impinge our national security. i think that is very important issue. one other very important issue by the way. apparently we have a tunisia ann individual in custody captured in turkey. my colleague lindsey graham wrote a letter to the tunisian ambassador asking we get access to the individual. apparently we haven't had access to the person identified in the video having been at the consulate during the attack. jon: you senator graham, senator mccain, senator ron johnson signed this letter, all republicans.

democrats often say republicans are using this, politicizing national security over this benghazi attack. your response? >> there is absolutely nothing political when four brave americans have been murdered in a terrorist event and we need to get to the bottom of it to make sure americans are protected. and by the way, with al qaeda on the rise, as much as the president says, we need to make sure the american people are protected. that is our foremost responsibility and the commander-in-chief, the president of the united states, has to answer these questions. this is incredibly important. what has been most shocking in fact, i'm glad fox has been covering this, is that, more mainstream media outlets are not asking these hard questions, that need to be asked, important questions the president should know. he obviously knows what he knows. was he told about the prior attacks? why was this representation made by the administration it was reaction to the video. he has to answer these questions. jon: we'll continue to ask those questions as well. >> thank you. jon: senator kelly ayotte of new hampshire.

armed services committee. >> thank you, jon. jenna: that is story we'll continue to watch as our d.c. bureau continues to remind us. it is a really a story that continues to develop every single day. we'll continue to watch it for you. meantime, viewers, all of you continue to help us tell the story of superstorm sandy, the fallout, the cleanup. please keep your photos and videos coming at ureport@foxnews.com. early reports of estimates of damage from the storm, only a couple days are already being placed at $50 billion. what could be more trouble for folks that lost their home. what you need to get your home covered by insurance companies and helpful tips coming up. call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. marie callender's turkey breast with stuffing

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jon: right now we've been talking about some of the flooding plaguing new york city. this is the entrance what is now called the hue carey

brooklyn tunnel. you can see the water. if you're not from this area, you wonder why not get some pumps and pump it out? it will be a monumental task. we have a graphic that illustrates what is going on. the vision you saw, that is manhattan side of the brooklyn battery tunnel over here. this tunnel spans underneath upper new york harbor, upper new york bay 9100 feet all the way to brook lynn there on the other side. at the time it was built, it spanned a greater expanse of water than any tunnel ever constructed to that point, almost a mile. actually slightly more than a mile. 5600 feet right here between the two shores that this tunnel goes under. there is something like 43 million gallons of water there but that is just in one tube. there are two tubes. you don't see that

illustrated on this, on this particular map. so you have got 86 million gallons of water. that is the amount of water that flows over niagra falls in two minutes. that is enough to fill up a third of the empire state building. as you can see it is down low here. it is well below the actual floor of new york harbor because they carved through bedrock here. that is how much water they have to pump out. it will take weeks to get that job done. jenna. jenna: jon, you said weeks before that tunnel is available again. we'll have continuing fox news coverage from the storm to devastation on the coast from blizzards and battering mountain areas. the latest developments up next. today, today is halloween. wait until you hear who is behind these costumes? we'll have that next.

jon: words of prayer for the victims of this super storm coming from pope benedict, the

pope expressing his concern for everyone affected by the storm. >> i offer my prayers for the victims, all those engaged in the work of rebuilding. jon: the pope spoke to pill grams from st. peter's square during his weekly public audience earlier today. jenna: it is halloween, you didn't come in costume. jon: i should have. jenna: we have a lot of serious news, we are going to cover it all for you. it is halloween. jon: i'm always a vampire. jenna: i could see that. some of our military men and women, some deployed, some not taking a break this halloween. this one from the u.s.s. dwight d. eisenhower a jack-o-lantern carving. another picture as well, it looked pretty good the navy hard at work. jon: the army carves bette